Fell off today - Helmet saved me a trip to the hospital.

RichTL
Posts: 133
Joining cycle lane from main road, front wheel skidded on kerb and off I went.
Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side. Helmet now has a bite size chunk out of it. Fortunately Im realatively unscathed beside a sore left hand side, sore thumb, slight headache and a few scratches here and there.
I think that if I hadn't have had my helmet on it would have definately been a trip to the hosptial or worse.
Fortunately my bike is OK just a few light scratches.
I will never ride without a helemt after this.
Need to buy a new one before next weekend so that I can ride in safety.
Just wanted to share this.
Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
Rich - Kamakazie cyclist.
Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side. Helmet now has a bite size chunk out of it. Fortunately Im realatively unscathed beside a sore left hand side, sore thumb, slight headache and a few scratches here and there.
I think that if I hadn't have had my helmet on it would have definately been a trip to the hosptial or worse.
Fortunately my bike is OK just a few light scratches.
I will never ride without a helemt after this.
Need to buy a new one before next weekend so that I can ride in safety.
Just wanted to share this.
Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
Rich - Kamakazie cyclist.
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Comments
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sorry to hear you came off, good to hear the helmet did its job...i remember coming off once as a kid and cracking my helmet in half, makes you think!
don't forget to get that new one though, just in case!0 -
Eek. Glad you came off relatively lightly!
But it might be worth putting your helmet back on for the replies to follow0 -
I had a heavy fall earlier this year when my front wheel lost it on some mud. I came down really hard, bruising my knee, elbow and shoulder. Not a mark on my head though as it never touched the ground (same as with all the offs I have had in 45 years of cycling). Perhaps if I had been wearing a helmet the extra weight and bulk would have caused it to make contact and shatter (as it is designed to do).
Who knows? Both myself and the OP would have to have the same accidents again with and without helmets to find out. If ever I see some convincing statistical evidence to show that helmet use has had any impact on the number of head injuries to cyclists I will start wearing one, so far no-one has produced a shred so I don't.0 -
Glad you're ok Rich. Everyone has accidents.
I agree with you; I had a crash a few years ago and I'm pretty sure I'd have been a mess if I wasn't wearing a helmet, so I'll keep wearing one.
If "the extra weight and bulk" are ever an issue I think I'd need help!0 -
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Blue touch paper well and truly lit
:roll:
Jens says "Shut up legs !! "
Specialized S-Works SaxoBank SL4 Tarmac Di20 -
Ithankyou0
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Ok, I'm in.
I've worn a helmet the last 8 or 9 years. Never had an off, so it did bug me know and again, having to wear a helmet (wife insists!), but we had a week in Majorca in September, just the wife and I. I went out one afternoon and got caught in some pretty awful thunderstroms. I was just pootling through one of the villages looking for the turning on the map, and I just went down at the junction (it was there first major rain in a few months). It took me by surprise, so I didn't have much time to react. Hit my head pretty hard on the tarmac, everything was a bit blurry for a couple of minutes after that. A few locals came to my aid. One old geezer offering the immortal line "piano, piano", yeah sod the piano I was only doing about 10mph! Anyway, the helmet was ruined, but luckily my holiday wasn't. I'd never go as far as thinking a helmet would save my life, but I do think it saved my holiday. By the way, Giro offer a crash replacement policy for helmets under 3 years old, so you can get a new Atmos or Ionos for £40-£60. Wish I'd known that when I bought my lid, I would have kept the receipt!0 -
redddraggon wrote:RichTL wrote:Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
All guesswork
How the hell can 'Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side.' be guesswork? The helmet saved his head and worse injuries, simple as that. Why are anti-helmet wearers always so quick to deny?0 -
giant mancp wrote:redddraggon wrote:RichTL wrote:Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
All guesswork
How the hell can 'Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side.' be guesswork? The helmet saved his head and worse injuries, simple as that. Why are anti-helmet wearers always so quick to deny?
You obviously can't read Giant Man
I specifically quoted:RichTL wrote:Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
NotRichTL wrote:'Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side."giant mancp wrote:Why are anti-helmet wearers always so quick to deny?
And Since when am I anti-helmet wearing? I think you'll find that I never leave the house without my helmet when I go on bike.
Doesn't stop me hating all the pseudoscientific bullsh!t that people come out with if they damage a helmet in a crash though.0 -
Smokin Joe wrote:Perhaps if I had been wearing a helmet the extra weight and bulk would have caused it to make contact and shatter (as it is designed to do).
Yeah, something I've noticed about my helemt is that it's sooo damn heavy and bulky! All that polystyrene is just to much for me to be able to support... :roll:0 -
mask of sanity wrote:Smokin Joe wrote:Perhaps if I had been wearing a helmet the extra weight and bulk would have caused it to make contact and shatter (as it is designed to do).
Yeah, something I've noticed about my helemt is that it's sooo damn heavy and bulky! All that polystyrene is just to much for me to be able to support... :roll:
As I've said, show me the evidence re head injuries before and since helmet use that prove helmets have been effective and I will change my mind. There isn't a shred.0 -
redddraggon wrote:giant mancp wrote:redddraggon wrote:RichTL wrote:Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
All guesswork
How the hell can 'Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side.' be guesswork? The helmet saved his head and worse injuries, simple as that. Why are anti-helmet wearers always so quick to deny?
You obviously can't read Giant Man
I specifically quoted:RichTL wrote:Wearing a helmet today saved me a lot of grief and possibly my life.
NotRichTL wrote:'Had a really heavy fall, landing on my head and left side."giant mancp wrote:Why are anti-helmet wearers always so quick to deny?
And Since when am I anti-helmet wearing? I think you'll find that I never leave the house without my helmet when I go on bike.
Doesn't stop me hating all the pseudoscientific bullsh!t that people come out with if they damage a helmet in a crash though.
I dunno mate guess i read it wrong = fair do's :oops:0 -
I know it's very much a personal thing, but I have worn all sorts of helmets from large full face ones on a motorcycle to the conventional one I always wear on the bike.
I wear one because I have hit my head in a tumble enough times to know they have saved me from hurt.
Even the most advanced full face motorcycle helmet won't save your head in the event of a momentous crash, I know that and accept it.
I wear gloves to save as much of my hands as possible on an off and the helmet is there for the same reason, it doesn't mean I expect it to do the impossible.0 -
In my professional life I see more of the bad head injuries than most.
Cycling & horse riding helmets are not brilliantly made & only protect at low speed. The standard for cycling helmets is only 12mph or a metre fall to impact.
However skin versus road hurts. Also a punch in the mouth can cause a fall onto the pavement with enough force to fracture a skull & cause bleeding into the brain as my son found out on a night out in Sheffield. Three weeks in neuro ward & six months rehabilitation.
So I choose to wear a helmet (some of the time), mainly for two wheels but lately even on three after seeing the effects of recent bikers' tumbles.
Nothing protects against being crushed against a railing by a van, or a full impact by a car head-on at 60mph onto a stationary rider.....0 -
Smokin Joe wrote:I had a heavy fall earlier this year when my front wheel lost it on some mud. I came down really hard, bruising my knee, elbow and shoulder. Not a mark on my head though as it never touched the ground (same as with all the offs I have had in 45 years of cycling). Perhaps if I had been wearing a helmet the extra weight and bulk would have caused it to make contact and shatter (as it is designed to do).
Who knows? Both myself and the OP would have to have the same accidents again with and without helmets to find out. If ever I see some convincing statistical evidence to show that helmet use has had any impact on the number of head injuries to cyclists I will start wearing one, so far no-one has produced a shred so I don't.
Yes they have, there is a lot of proof that if you have exactly the same accident a helmet will protect your head, by a different percentage depending on angle etc.
They aren't designed to contact and shatter either. They are designed to stay together.
You think that the extra weight of a helmet, will overcome the strength of neck muscles (compoared to not wearing a helmet) so greatly that it will make the helmet shatter? Surely that means if you drop a helmet it will shatter? Or maybe they have a magic mass multiplier in when you put them on?
I don't know how good a helmet is, but your original post is clearly biased.0 -
OK, my turn. At the end of the Blenheim Palace sportive, my first ever 100 I was so pleased to finish that apparently I managed to somersault off my bike about 20 yards after the end. I say apparently as I don't recall anything for (I'm told) the next couple minutes or so, then I remember the paramedic asking me what my name was. I have a couple of reliable witnesses to the event in my 2 sons, one of whom was next to me, the other behind me.
My helmet (an Ionos) was a bit of a mess, it didn't shatter externally, but did fragment internally, and had a goodly few dents / cracks on the shell. I can't help but feel the few grammes it added to my mass didn't do a whole lot to my rotation around my centre of gravity, so I don't think it contributed to my accident.
So did it save my head from more serious damage? Happily I've never replicated that specific incident without a helmet, (and don't have any desire to do so) therefore I can't do any explicit comparison. But I have a strong feeling that had it NOT been on my head, I'd have been in worse shape than I was. Even ignoring the (likely) reduction in shock, I'm hopeful that my skull might be a bit more resilient than a bit of polystyrene, but I've got little doubt that the skin covering my skull wouldn't have fared better than the shell of the helmet
Therefore I'm not overly concerned with scientific evidence or otherwise (though I can't help but be impressed with the ingenuity of the argument about the increase in diameter of your head having some effect in the real world). My personal view is that it saved me from some grief, damage and pain I really didn't need and that's good enough for me.
But, in the words of the prophet "you pays yer money and takes yer choice""The only absolute statement is that everything is relative" - anon0 -
OP: Glad to hear you are ok! The occasional off is to be expected and its always good to come out the other end healthy.
As for the lid debate, its preference... I dont really feel safer wearing one, but I do anyway as in the event of a crash, Id like to think I did everything to prevent major head trauma as possible.
Lets be honest... if you didnt wear a hat and ended up feeding from a straw through major brain damage, you would at least consider the fact that a hat MIGHT have absorbed some of the impact.
If there is no hard scientific evidence to say that they DO reduce injury, its concievable that there is no evidence to prove that they increase the chance of injury.0 -
I tipped off in the summer. Clatted a tree at a fair old lick. I was out for about 30mins, got 2 nights full board in a head injuries ward. 8 hours of that day is completely erased from the memory bank. This was done with a lid on.
The helmet ( Bell Volt) was crushed/split etc but it did it's job.
Doc @ Scunthorpe General said without the lid " your skull would be in several pieces".
I've been riding bikes for 20 years & only started wearing a helmet in 08, I might never get close to having a crash that bad again... but you only need one don't ya.
It's a personal thing but if seatbelts became optional would you stop wearing it or would you buy a new motor if it didn't have an airbag?
Thing is if I had'vesmashed my skull to a mush, who knows what state I would be in now? Dead? Paralysed? That would be sh1t for me but worse for my family for sure.0 -
If you have a crash in which your head hits something hard wearing a helmet is likely to result in fewer/less serious injuries (but not on every occasion).
If you have a crash where your head doesn't hit anything a helmet will hot make any difference.
It's insurance against a particular type of crash. Sometimes insurance is worth it, sometimes it isn't, it's a probability game.
IMHO on balance the risk of banging your bonce is high enough to make the lid worthwhile.
I'll always wear gloves too, every crash I've ever had I've hurt my hands.0 -
Irrespective of whether or not you believe a helmet would save you from more severe injury in the event of an accident the one thing that guarantees I always wear mine is that, in the event of an accident that is someone elses fault, leading to severe head injury I'd be worried that any insurance payout to my family may be reduced as I may be deemed to be x% culpable for failing to take all precautionary measures. In the event that I am unable to work and support my family I want to at least know that they will be provided for at the highest possible level. Let's face it, we aren't exactly in a climate where it can be argued that a modern, lightweight, vented helmet will cause overheating. The other favourite argument is that drivers will pass you more closely if you are wearing a helmet. I feel that is clutching at straws, I've not noticed any difference from the occassions when I used to not wear a helmet - some people pass nice and wide and others are knobs that feel 6 inches of space is plenty.
It's personal choice but why take the risk :?0 -
resus1uk wrote:Also a punch in the mouth can cause a fall onto the pavement with enough force to fracture a skull & cause bleeding into the brain
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So I choose to wear a helmet (some of the time), mainly for two wheels but lately even on three after seeing the effects of recent bikers' tumbles.
And also for nights out on the lash?John Stevenson0 -
Now that would reduce my workload on a Friday/Saturday night in the city.
Sumo paded suit would help when I fall over0 -
John Stevenson wrote:resus1uk wrote:Also a punch in the mouth can cause a fall onto the pavement with enough force to fracture a skull & cause bleeding into the brain
...
So I choose to wear a helmet (some of the time), mainly for two wheels but lately even on three after seeing the effects of recent bikers' tumbles.
And also for nights out on the lash?
A guy i went to school with was punched, fell, went into a cona and died :shock:winter beast: http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr34 ... uff016.jpg
Summer beast; http://i497.photobucket.com/albums/rr34 ... uff015.jpg0 -
STEFANOS4784 wrote:John Stevenson wrote:resus1uk wrote:Also a punch in the mouth can cause a fall onto the pavement with enough force to fracture a skull & cause bleeding into the brain
...
So I choose to wear a helmet (some of the time), mainly for two wheels but lately even on three after seeing the effects of recent bikers' tumbles.
And also for nights out on the lash?
A guy i went to school with was punched, fell, went into a cona and died :shock: :
(
Some one I orked with was smacked outside a club in Caerphilly and he fell back onto the pavement and that as it, dead, 25 years old.0 -
Fact 1: A cycle helmet will certainly reduce the risk and/or severity of some (relatively) minor injuries caused by low force impacts such as cuts, concussion etc. As these are statistically some of the most common head injuries you are likely to get from cycling, you could easily see this as a good enough reason by itself to wear a helmet. On the other hand, if that was all a helmet did, you could equally reasonably (depending on personal choice / risk preferences) decide that you would rather put up with the odd knock and scrape than the perceived hassle and/or discomfort of wearing a helmet every day. Personal choice, and not necessarily one with a clear "most sensible" answer.
Fact 2: A cycle helmet will make little or no difference in really high impact / force situations.
The big questions, which no-one seems to know the answers to, are 1) what sort of difference is a helmet likely to make to the outcome of an "intermediate" level of impact, and 2) how wide is this intermediate category, i.e. how likely are you to have a crash which is serious enough to cause more than a relatively minor injury, but not so serious that wearing helmet would make no difference? A lot of people, myself included, have had the experience of coming off the bike, suffering a head impact that seriously damages the helmet, and coming away with the subjective impression that the helmet prevented much more serious injury. But actually, it is very difficult to know if this subjective impression is correct - doubtless the impact would have hurt more without the helmet, but would it have caused serious injury, i.e. something affecting quality of life in the medium or long term? We just don't know, however much we might "feel" that the helmet saved us. Our skulls presumably ARE stronger than a cycle helmet, but because they are OUR skulls made of flesh and bone and wired up to our nervous systems, they often don't feel like it (and for good reason).
Personally I wear a helmet because of Fact 1, combined with the lack of knowledge about the big questions above and a gut feeling (which I fully admit might be wrong) that it could just make the difference between a trivial knock and a serious concussion, or a serious concussion and a significant brain injury. That's my choice though - more research of the right type is definitely needed.0 -
neeb, I really try and stay out of helmet discussions, and I expect I will regret it, but I gather a vertical drop of the head on to concrete of just 30cm can be fatal. Also, I don't think it is really about the strength of our skulls, it is about the softness of our brains within when smashed against the inside of our skulls, and the ability of helmets to reduce this impact of brain against skull by decelerating the head more slowly as the helmet crushes and disperses energy.
I don't think it is the case that helmets can protect you from only trivial injury, however they may only protect you in relatively trivial impacts, I think the two issues are often confused leading to the conclusion that a helmet cannot prevent serious injury (i.e., falling off your bike onto head at 12mph may be a trivial impact, but could be fatal; being hit on the head by a car at 30mph is not a trivial impact, and is also likely to be fatal). There is plenty of research and scientific knowledge concerning the effects of different impacts on the brain. Where the research may be lacking and / or conflicting is in terms of rigorous evidence from the field, i.e. applied research of helmet use in practice.0 -
neeb wrote:Fact 1: A cycle helmet will certainly reduce the risk and/or severity of some (relatively) minor injuries caused by low force impacts such as cuts, concussion etc. As these are statistically some of the most common head injuries you are likely to get from cycling, you could easily see this as a good enough reason by itself to wear a helmet. On the other hand, if that was all a helmet did, you could equally reasonably (depending on personal choice / risk preferences) decide that you would rather put up with the odd knock and scrape than the perceived hassle and/or discomfort of wearing a helmet every day. Personal choice, and not necessarily one with a clear "most sensible" answer.
Fact 2: A cycle helmet will make little or no difference in really high impact / force situations.
The big questions, which no-one seems to know the answers to, are 1) what sort of difference is a helmet likely to make to the outcome of an "intermediate" level of impact, and 2) how wide is this intermediate category, i.e. how likely are you to have a crash which is serious enough to cause more than a relatively minor injury, but not so serious that wearing helmet would make no difference? A lot of people, myself included, have had the experience of coming off the bike, suffering a head impact that seriously damages the helmet, and coming away with the subjective impression that the helmet prevented much more serious injury. But actually, it is very difficult to know if this subjective impression is correct - doubtless the impact would have hurt more without the helmet, but would it have caused serious injury, i.e. something affecting quality of life in the medium or long term? We just don't know, however much we might "feel" that the helmet saved us. Our skulls presumably ARE stronger than a cycle helmet, but because they are OUR skulls made of flesh and bone and wired up to our nervous systems, they often don't feel like it (and for good reason).
Personally I wear a helmet because of Fact 1, combined with the lack of knowledge about the big questions above and a gut feeling (which I fully admit might be wrong) that it could just make the difference between a trivial knock and a serious concussion, or a serious concussion and a significant brain injury. That's my choice though - more research of the right type is definitely needed.
You've already said you wear one because you believe it reduces the severity of minor injuries, so why do we need more research?0